Song Joong-ki says he won’t star in another movie for free

Badland Hunters.Netflix has announced that it has greenlit production on its the upcoming film. Badland Hunters. The movie will be led by Eternals star Ma Dong-seok along with Lee Hee-jun, Lee Jun-young and Roh Jeong-eui.The film, which has been in talks since at least 2022, is reportedly set in the universe of disaster-thriller Concrete Utopia starring Lee Byung-hun, Park Seo-joon and Park Bo-young, which was released earlier this year.According to Netflix, Ma stars in the post-apocalyptic film as Nam-san, a wasteland hunter in a decimated Seoul after a devastating earthquake.

Castaway Diva. The song was released yesterday (October 31) on music streaming platforms, alongside its accompanying music video.

Taiwan saw significant premium VOD subscriber and engagement growth in the third quarter of 2023, adding 315,000 net new SVOD subs to reach a total of 5.8 million subscriptions, according to a report by Media Partners Asia.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor “Past Lives” writer and director Celine Song handles the delicate themes of love and destiny surrounding the Korean Buddhist concept of In-Yun — the connection, fate and destiny of two people. However, the South Korean/Canadian playwright says she had her own “revelation” while making her directorial debut.

Jahmyr Gibbs is one of the rising stars in the NFL world and he has a special someone to celebrate all of his success with right now!

Naman Ramachandran Bangladeshi auteur Mostofa Sarwar Farooki has wrapped his latest film “Last Defenders of Monogamy.” The cast is headlined by popular Bangladeshi actor Chanchal Chowdhury (“Karagar,” “Hawa”) and Xefer Rahman and the cast also includes Samina Hussain Prema and Shuddho Rai. The film follows Shafqat (Chowdhury), a father of two adolescents and a loving husband, who is a firm believer in the ideals of monogamy but the winds of change take a big test of his ideologies. “Working with Farooki is always special.

America Ferrera, Eva Longoria and Linda Yvette Chavez, and Celine Song and Greta Lee have been set as recipients of this year’s WIF Honors.

Persona: Sulli, a documentary film starring late K-pop star Sulli, will premiere on Netflix in November.Today (October 26), Netflix confirmed that Persona: Sulli will be released on the streaming platform next month. According to a report from Korea JoongAng Daily, the film will be split into two parts.The first is a short film called 4: Clean Island, which stars the late Sulli as the titular “4”, who travels to an island that is dubbed the cleanest place in the world.

UPDATED, 8 AM: “Attention all players. It is now time for the next game.” So begins the new trailer for Squid Game: The Challenge, dropped today by Netflix ahead of the reality series’ November 22 premiere. It’s an extended look at the competition series inspired by the hit Korean dystopian drama series, with some of the contestants showing surprise when they are “fake shot”, “Oh s**t” says one of the contestants when she takes an air bullet to the chest. There’s also surprise when contestants are told they need to eliminate two of their own. Check out the new trailer above.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Along with the expansion of streaming, among the unintended consequences of COVID and the SAG-AFTRA actors strike has been global consumers’ growing consumption of non-English-language films and TV shows. That in turn has elevated familiarity with and acceptance of Asian local shows and Asian performers – not just those riding the Korean wave.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Lee Sun-kyun, star of Oscar-winning Korean film “Parasite,” is being investigated by police over his alleged drug use, Korean news media report. “Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency had begun an investigation into eight people, including the actor and the offspring of a chaebol [major family-controlled conglomerate], over allegations they took illegal drugs multiple times this year,” the publicly-owned Yonhap News Agency reported on Friday afternoon. The news outlet also reported that “while the police have not officially named Lee as a suspect, they are said to have discovered a lead in connection with the actor’s illegal activities.” There has been no explanation of what substances Lee is alleged to have used.

Castaway Diva, starring Park Eun-bin of Extraordinary Attorney Woo fame.Castaway Diva follows Seo Mok-ha, a crass countryside girl who has pipe dreams of becoming a pop star. One fateful day, as she’s making her way to Seoul city in order to make her dreams come true, Mok-ha somehow finds herself stranded on an uninhabited island, where she remains for the next 15 years.The new trailer introduces the eccentricities of Mok-ha, who speaks in a heavy dialect synonymous with rural South Korean towns and is extremely vocal about her dreams, despite being well aware of the fact that she “sounds hopeless”.

South Korean auteur Chung Ji-Young came to the eighth London East Asia Film Festival on Wednesday night with his latest film The Boys, which opens in its homeland on 1 November. Based on real events, which saw three innocent country boys imprisoned in 1999 for a callous murder-robbery in North Jeolla Province, the film stars Sol Kyung-gu as detective Joon-cheol. Once known as “Mad Dog”, Joon-cheol has mellowed over time, and when he receives information many years later that suggests the real criminals have gone free, Joon-cheol begins a crusade for justice — bringing down the wrath of the area’s corrupt lawmakers, who begin a campaign of intimidation intended to destroy his career and credibility.

Jimin of K-pop boyband BTS has opened up about how the superstar group managed to overcome language barriers with their music.In a new interview with GQ Korea, BTS’ Jimin spoke about how the boyband were able to transcend languages with their music. Notably, BTS have topped the Billboard Hot 100 with songs in both English and Korean.“To get to where we are now, our team has faced considerable struggles,” Jimin said, “occasionally losing our way and experiencing conflict, but always supporting each other.”“The joy, sorrow, pain, delight, and love we’ve felt along the way – we’ve been candid about it all.

Chinese director Ning Hao has flown directly from Busan film festival in South Korea to China’s Pingyao International Film Festival (PYIFF) with his latest film, The Movie Emperor, starring Andy Lau. 

Concert film BTS: Yet to Come has been set to stream on Amazon’s Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories starting November 9. The K-pop superstars’ concert originally took place in October last year at the Asiad Main Stadium in Busan, South Korea as part of the city’s World Expo 2030 bid. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief K-pop concert movie “BTS: Yet to Come” will play exclusively on the Amazon-owned Prime Video platform, launching on Nov. 9.

BTS have announced the release date and availability for their February 2023 concert film, BTS: Yet to Come.Today (October 17), the group announced through its official Twitter account that BTS: Yet to Come will be available to stream on November 9 via Prime Video globally, as well as Coupang Play in South Korea.BTS: Yet to Come was originally released in February 2023 in movie theatres worldwide.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Unrecognizable from her co-starring and breakout role in 2018 hit “Burning,” Jeon Jong-seo is the centerpiece, the tortured protagonist and the athletic avenger, but not the titular dancer, in Netflix movie and Busan International Film Festival selection “Ballerina.” In the hands of fast-rising director Lee Chung-hyung, Jeon is a coolly calculating female former bodyguard who, until roused, looks like she is half dazed. The suicide of her best friend, a sweet wannabe ballerina, who had been blackmailed into sex slavery by a nasty gang, however, is enough to set Jeon’s character, Ok-ju, on the path towards “John Wick”-like ultra-violence. While Lee never leaves the audience in much doubt as to where the film is heading – an early scene in a convenience store is cool, shocking and righteous – his “Ballerina” is typically Korean in that it spends most of the first two reels establishing Ok-ju’s moral standing and motivation for the bloodshed that is going to dominate the latter portions. Once justified, Lee pours it all on, with a dose of weapons fetishization, a horde of mostly disposable villains and heaps of neon-lit bloodshed.

Now that Autumn is upon us keeping our skin hydrated and healthy is one of our top priorities, and if there’s one beauty trend we’ll be abiding by it’s the Korean beauty-inspired 'glass skin'.The trend has been going viral on TikTok for months now and involves giving your skin a hefty dose of hydration to create glossy, glass-like results.There’s one product that TikTokers swear by for boosting moisture – and it’s currently got 45% off in the Amazon Prime Day sale. The COSRX Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence, £12.09 here (was £21.99), has been lauded as a must-have serum for creating hydrated skin as well as soothing sensitive skin and helping reduce the signs of ageing.